Category Archives: Archaeology of Bible

Where was Sodom? And how was it destroyed?

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[This is an extended and updated version of an article first posted in 2021.]

Sodom was one of the five ‘cities of the plain’ – the others being Gomorrah, Admah, Zoar and Zeboiim.  Most of the biblical geographical details occurs in Gen 13:10–11.  Gen 19:18–20; 19:1–13 records how they were destroyed by a conflagration because of their extreme sinfulness.

The names of Sodom and Gomorrah resonate throught Scripture as bywords for sin and its punishment (Deut 29:23; 32:32; Is 1:9–10; 13:19; Jer 23:14; 49:18; 50:40; Lam 4:6; Ezek 16:46–49, 53–56; Amos 4:11; Zeph 2:9; Mt 10:15; 11:23–24; Lk 10:12; 17:29; 2 Pet 2:6; Jude 7; Rev 11:8).…

Erastus of Corinth

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‘During the eighteen months he was in Corinth (Acts 18:11) Paul evidently converted a man named Erastus, who provides an interesting cross-cultural link in the Corinthian church. One of the most imposing structures in Corinth was the fourteen-thousand-seat theater, located northwest of the forum and renovated about five years before Paul arrived. About this time (c. 50, during the reign of Claudius) a large stone plaza was also laid at the northeast corner of the theater area.…

The Code of Hammurabi and the Law of Moses

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Hammurabi was a Babylonian king who reigned in the 18th century BC.  His code of law was discovered by French archaeologists in 1901-2.

Among the 300-odd laws are many that are similar to those of the Mosaic law.  For example, some of the laws deal with the concept of ‘an eye for an eye’, and these are quite closely parallel to those contained in the so-called ‘book of the covenant’ (Exodus 21-23).

The following examples are cited by Peter Enns (Inspiration and Incarnation):-

[ezcol_1half]If a son has struck his father, they shall cut off his hand.…

The Pilate inscription

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In 1961 an Italian archaeologist, Antonio Frova, discovered an inscription at Caesarea Maritima on a stone slab which at the time of the discovery was being used as a section of steps leading into the Caesarea theatre.  The inscription in Latin contained four lines, three of which are partially readable.  Roughly translated they are as follows:-

Tiberium
Pontius Pilate
Prefect of Judea

The inscribed stone was probably used originally in the foundation for a Tiberium (a temple for the worship of the emperor Tiberius) and then reused later in the discovered location. …

1 Peter 3:18-20 – Christ ‘preached to the spirits in prison’

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1 Peter 3:18-20 – ‘Because Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, to bring you to God, by being put to death in the flesh but by being made alive in the spirit.  In it he went and preached to the spirits in prison, after they were disobedient long ago when God patiently waited in the days of Noah as an ark was being constructed. In the ark a few, that is eight souls, were delivered through water.’…